The Battle of Ponyville
by Wormtail96
Summary: The ponies of Ponyville find themselves in the most deadly situation of their lives. They are Canterlot's only line of defence against the feared General and his army. They have no choice but to fight for their town, their kingdom and their lives.
1. Prologue

**(a/n) Hello, everyone. I've noticed recently that a lot of fanfiction writers have a story for each of their chosen categories that more often than not, helps them leave their mark on that fandom. I mean, for example, the "Cupcakes" story has definitely left its mark on the My Little Pony fandom, though for reasons I'm sure a lot of us do not like talking about. What I intend to do is try and leave my own mark in this fandom; make a story that will leave an impression on the reader and possibly their perceptions of the fandom in general. So yeah, this fanfiction here is my attempt at that, though I may change the title in the future. Chances are it will probably just become one of the many fanfictions in this category, but you never know until you try. It's not going to be a particularly **_**long**_** one, but I'm sure it will be long enough to get its messages and points across. So sit back, relax and enjoy my story.**

* * *

**The Battle of Ponyville**

**Prologue**

* * *

"_My friend, you would not tell with such high zest_

_To children ardent for some desperate glory,_

_The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est_

_Pro patria mori."_

_- Wilfred Owen_

_Dulce Et Decorum Est_

"_The pity of war, the pity war distilled"_

_- Wilfred Owen_

_Strange Meeting_

* * *

The Grey Trolls, or the Mountain Trolls as they were more commonly known as around the Earth, were a stateless race of troll, located in plentiful populations in most mountains on the planted. Centuries ago, they were an agricultural people who lived mostly in their own nation, the name of which had long been forgotten, but they were driven out as a result of a devastating war with their natural enemies, the Green Trolls, who added the former's land to their own. The Grey Trolls were chased off into the harsh, cold mountains of the world where, over time, they adapted and made their new residence. And it is safe to say that during this time the now Mountain Trolls developed a quiet and peaceful existence for themselves, preferring to stay out of affairs beyond their mountainous homes.

However, whilst this may have been the case, the various worldwide philosophy and ideology that developed over the centuries soon reached them. The principle of self-determination became a popular ideal amongst Mountain Trolls and discontent, regardless of the state of economy or social harmony, began to fester amongst them. Many Mountain Trolls began talking about acquiring their own nation once again, but all they received from the other nations were sympathetic ears. The problem was that whilst most nations, save of course for the Green Trolls, were sympathetic to the Grey Trolls' demands, the practically of said demands were not so feasible. There was very little hospitable land left on the Earth that the Grey Trolls could utilize and make their own, and no nation was willing to succeed parts of their own land to the trolls. So what other option would the increasingly angry Grey Trolls have, other than _take_ land for themselves by force? For this option, the vast majority of Mountain Trolls were willing and some already prepared.

Their cause would soon turn into a raging wave of blood bursting out of a dam. All the Grey Trolls needed to proceed was a leader, one strong enough and with enough charisma to lead the charge. Once they found one, nothing was to stop the madness that would soon be unleashed...

* * *

A brisk wind crept across the plains of Equestria, heralding the early winter storm. The shadow of lumbering clouds, wider than mountains and taller still, darkened the horizon, its laden form letting loose flurry upon flurry of heavy, wet snow. As the storm neared the town of Ponyville, the chilled breeze was transformed into a freezing gale that throttled the trees to their breaking point. The pegasi, normally responsible for keeping such threats at bay, had been called away, leaving the wood and stone houses of the town victim to the blizzard. The occasional flash of lighting froze the world for a split second, painting the land in stark white before returning to shadow and cold.

Ponyville did not look like the warm, welcoming town it was known to be. Something about it had changed and made it look cold and even unapproachable. Wooden lookout towers rose shortly out from the south edge of the town, all facing the south direction, and the south edge was also surrounded by a number of wooden barricades on which muskets were positioned on each. There were ponies down there behind every barricade dressed in bright blue vests and manning the muskets. They were soldiers.

Inside the town, its centre looked devoid of any pony life. All windows and doors were boarded up with wooden planks. Every pony who was old enough had been armed in some way or another and was sent to their position as assigned, whilst every foal, colt and filly had been taken to a disclosed safe area beneath one of the buildings.

Twilight Sparkle, the lavender unicorn pony with a dark blue, purple and pink mane and tale stood up on one of the Lookout towers, conveniently named 'Tower #1'. She too looked different than her normally happy self. Her eyes had sunken deep into the dark sockets of her skull, and her coat was lacking its pleasant sheen. She was so tired, having not had a good night's sleep in a week. On top of her head she was wearing a blue peaked cap with a golden broach clipped to the front and around her thin neck she wore a woolly scarf.

The unicorn was peering through a telescope set up on a tripod in front of the tower's rails. Her view of the south hills was being distorted by the picking up snowfall and the minor fog at the hilltop, rendering her device useless.

Looking away from the telescope, Twilight started slowly pacing up and down the inferior wooden floor in thought. Her breath was at a faster pace than normal and she could feel her pulse beating on the side of her neck, being caused by anxiety of the events that were to come.

What chance did they honestly stand? Here they were; a mere few hundred ponies armed with only the basics of conventional war weapons which they had trained with for only about a week, and they were going up against trained, disciplined warriors with more than twice the number of expendable soldiers in comparison to theirs. This would not be a battle; it would be a slaughter of epic proportions, in which many of her closest friends and worst of all, the kingdom which she loved so much were likely to be its casualties. Twilight Sparkle prayed that if that be the case, she should not survive to bare the crushing guilt and die honourably in battle like a true warrior and leader should.

There was a loud creaking sound the unicorn spun in her head in a brief panic, fearing she was being approached by an assassin. She stopped and smiled warmly when she immediately realised that is was not any assailant, but a familiar face. Good. A familiar face was what she needed right now to pick her spirits up.

"Commander," She greeted her friend with a smile fighting its way through her solemn expression.

"General Sparkle…"

* * *

_Three weeks ago…_

The hillsides that surrounded Ponyville for miles were calm and silent that cloudless crisp morning, the only sounds coming from the chirping birds and the squeaking small mammals. Southern migration and hibernation was approaching for these animals and they looked towards spending the Equestrian Winter in their own way from the ponies. Trees and bushes were turning brown and foliage gathered on the cold ground.

Yet before it even arrived, the animal population's senses had picked it up and ran off to hide wherever they could. It was a remarkable talent for animals to sense danger before the so-called civilised species, yet one that was essential for their survival.

It was a sound. A very unnerving sound. A low, continuous _'thump'_ that only grew louder, more intimidating and more of a threat to the animals' wellbeing with every passing moment. And as it grew more in volume, the ground shook in accordance with it.

The sound soon took an embodiment. Over the hills in a straight line, progressing at a reasonable pace were a series of long stretching rows and columns of short grey and dark green figures, almost like a procession for royalty. They looked remarkably well organised, with each row and column being made up of ten by ten men. All together, these large, intimidating groups formed a large grey and green blot on the serene landscape from a bird's-eye view. From that view, they were marching straight up north from the south of Equestria, right in Ponyville's direction and from then forward, Canterlot, the Kingdom's capital.

If any creature of high enough intelligence was near enough to spot this march, they would be able to tell that this was in no way some kind of procession. Almost all the marchers were wearing dark green uniform jackets over their clunky grey bodies and light grey ushankas on top of their heads. Many of them were carrying instruments of wood and metal out in front of their puffed out chests, and a selected few at the front of the columns were holding up flags banners as they marched. A large number of them were even riding large, hairy boars besides the columns of their marching comrades. There was no mistake that this was an army, and by the way they were organised and marching through the land, one could not be blamed for assuming that they were going off to fight a war.

As their travel worn boots beat against the grassy earth on their march, any animal that remained in sight of this army huddled together and cowered before the might they possessed merely in large organised numbers, their menacing weapons and uniforms aside.

After the army's procession had successfully passed, silence remained in the hillsides for a while. All that remained from their brief presence there were the thousands of footprints that pummelled an indentation into the earth. But soon, innocent life returned to the area, followed by the sounds of birds chirping and mammals squeaking, and peace and harmony were restored once more.

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**(A/N) Okay, so that's the prologue. Being a prologue of course, it wasn't that long but I hope it has given you a good enough taste of what is to come with this story. So as this story progresses and evolves, please be sure to read and review; tell me what you like, what you're not particularly fond of and hell, if you have any, you can express some suggestions. So until next time, take care.**


	2. Chapter One: Tents on the hills

**(a/n) Okay, everyone, sorry it has taken a while, I've had a lot of distractions, but I'm back with the first proper chapter. This is of course to show the beginning of the situation as described in the prologue, as well as the emotions on both sides of the matters. The second half of the chapter I believe is the stronger one, mostly because it gives us more of an introduction to the "enemy". Enjoy.**

* * *

**The Battle of Ponyville**

**Chapter One**

**Tents on the hills**

"Spike, where are those books I asked for?" Twilight Sparkle beckoned after her assistant with irritation. She was sitting down in front of a desk in her residence at the Ponyville library, where she had set down a pile of open books by a desk lamp. Her telescope was set up right next to it, facing the window. Outside, rain was showering down for the second day in a row and night was due to fall upon the land very soon. "I need them now before it gets too dark!"

"Hold on, I'm coming." Spike's voice came from the upper floors of the library and he soon descended the stairs to the ground floor where Twilight was. He was holding a couple of books, one green and the other red, under his tiny arm. "It's a big library, for crying out loud!"

The purple baby dragoon brought the books over to the table and set them open for Twilight. She promptly began flipping the pages of a red book over in search of something, with the occasional peeking through the telescope, not paying Spike any attention.

"Well, you're welcome." He said sarcastically and when she said nothing after that, he threw his arms in the air in frustration and walked off to another room. He was to head to bed early tonight. Rushing around after books all day for this lavender pony was more tiring than you would think.

Twilight Sparkle rubbed her dry, tired eyes (one of them sore from peeking so many times into the telescope) and continued skimming through her book again. She had been studying her vast assortment of books for three whole days now and felt that she was closing in on her goal – the symbol she was looking for.

"Hmmm, is this it?" She thought she had found it, but upon further inspection out the window, she found herself disappointed and stamped the desk with her hoof.

Outside the library, across the town, past the encompassing green scenery land, and up the second hill to the south, there was something peculiar, sticking out like a sore thumb on the serene landscape. It looked ominous enough to make somepony twist their head around to take a worried second glance.

What appeared to be hundreds of black spikes were jutting out of the earth of the top of the tall, steep hill. As hillsides surrounded Ponyville, the citizens would normally have not noticed, but the second hill to the south was also one of the biggest, able to be spotted from almost anywhere in the town.

It was not just the spikes that put the ponies off, but the fact that flying high over them was what most surely a flag on a tall poll. With that in mind, it was not long for the ponies to deduct that the 'spikes' were not spikes at all, but tents. It had to be a camp of sorts, though the mystery of its kind left the ponies confused and worried.

The now deduced camp was first spotted a week ago by the two young colts named Snips and Snails. They were having themselves a friendly fight outside the town by the first hill to the south, in which Snips was winning, when they stopped and saw tents poking out from the top of the hill next over. Luckily for them, their sense of curiosity managed not to get the best of them for once and their common sense prevailed, which told them to head back as fast as they could.

Once the two had returned to their home, they immediately began telling everypony around town about what they had seen on the hillsides. Initially, of course, few ponies believed or even paid attention to their tale, believing it to be either the overactive imaginations of two rambunctious colts or they were just plain lying. Yet ponies quickly changed their attitudes when they could see the tents for themselves from the town.

It did not take long before anxiety gripped Ponyville, producing theories and speculations, some wild, about the nature of the camp's presence near their town. The general consensus amongst the citizens was that it had to be an army. They did not have much to go on for that conclusion, but it proved especially hard to convince them otherwise.

Wanting to deal with the situation before it got worse, the Mayor of Ponyville summoned Twilight Sparkle to her office and commissioned her to figure out the nature of the camp that was taking residence on the hill.

"But how I'm to do this? You want to just go up there and ask them?" She asked sceptically of the aged pony when in her office. "Anypony could do that. I mean, maybe we could send one of the Pegasi to fly over and-"

"That'd be too risky." The Mayor cut her off, waving her hoof dismissively. "If it's an army, and a hostile one at that, I don't want to run the risk of provoking them if a scout pony gets spotted and taken prisoner. No, you should study the camp from a far. They've got this flag or something. Maybe you'll be able to identify it using the books in your library."

Twilight raised one of her hooves and scratched the back of her head, saying uncertainly, "Well, I guess I might be able to find something in the library. I mean, I'm pretty sure I can."

"That's good enough, but you'll need to find it out soon. The ponies are becoming are more and more…concerned, if you know what I mean."

"Of course."

That brings us to our current situation with poor, tired Twilight at her desk, going through what had to be the thousandth book on the third day of her task. She had secluded herself in the library since returning from the Mayor's office, purposely isolating herself from the outside world to focus on her research. Yet as a result, it took a bit of a toll on her health and appearance. She received very little sleep, causing her to constantly feel physically drained and irritable; her mane was askew and heavy bags formed under her eyes. But it was in her grasp now, she just knew it. It was practically staring her in the face.

The book she was going through at the moment was from her vast collection of books on the world's military and its history; the most likely field as she found it most unlikely that the camp to be anything else. Earlier that week, Pinkie Pie had suggested it may be "a summer camp", despite the fact that it was nearing winter. Well, that was random Pinkie Pie for you.

Finally, she groggily turned one more page on her book. She stared at it disinterestedly for a moment and was about to move on, but then her hoof and eyes froze on the page. The emblem shown and described extensively on the page was that of a white fist rising upward, surrounded by white jagged mountain peaks, all encompassed by a large purple circle. Her jaw dropped.

This was it. She practically jammed her eye into the eyepiece several times to confirm her find, and when she could at last say with absolute certainty that she had achieved her goal, a series of feelings flooded through her. The first was that of joy; she had accomplished her task after three painstaking days. The second was relief as she knew now that she might be able to get some rest now. Unfortunately, these were quickly overshadowed by a dawning realisation that filled Twilight Sparkle with a third emotion: fear.

Re-reading the old text beneath the emblem several times in the false hope that she had misread something and her fears were unfounded, Twilight's fear only steadily grew. She put a sticky note on the page, slammed the book shut and with more energy than she thought she had in her in such a tired state, Twilight spun around and hollered for her assistant.

"Spike! Spike, get in here, quick!"

The purple dragon re-emerged into the room and looked around with squinted eyes, rubbing the side of his head. He was half-asleep after having just tucking himself into bed for the night and did not appreciate being disturbed.

"Twilight…" Spike yawned loudly, covering his mouth. "What is it? What's the matter?"

"I've found out what that flag's all about!"

"Good for you. That's awesome, it really is. Now-"

Twilight shook her head frantically and went on ramblingly, looking as if she was about to have a heart attack, "No, no, no! Spike, you need to understand, we have to take this to the Mayor, right away! It's urge-"

"_Twilight!"_ He exclaimed loud enough to stop his friend in mid-sentence, which she did. Spike took a deep breath and rubbed his temples and told her, "Twi, I understand this is a serious situation and that we need to tell everyone as soon as possible, I really do, but just…_look_ at you!" He motioned his claws to her, obviously referring to her haggard appearance. "You need to sleep, Twilight," she was about to protest when he finished more firmly, giving her a serious look, "And I'm not letting you go anywhere until you do."

After having taken this moment to calm herself down, Twilight took a deep breath, followed by a yawn, before finally admitting, "Okay…you're right. We need to rest."

"We'll go report to the Mayor tomorrow, but for now, let's get you into bed, 'kay?"

"'Kay."

So they did just that. Spike took his friend back to their sleeping quarters and immediately, she slumped down onto her bed and fell asleep. The baby dragon felt it a little embarrassing having to put Twilight to bed, but as long as it kept her nose out the books, it was not a big deal.

Once that was sorted out, Spike found that he needed a drink before heading back to bed himself. As he did so, he began switching off all the lights of the rooms and it was not long before he found the one in which Twilight had locked herself up in for the last three days. Instead of turning the light off, when he looked over at the desk Twilight was working at, curiosity started to overtake him.

The last red book from which Twilight had been reading was still on the table, with the sticky note book mark still sticking out the top. It prompted Spike to wonder, _'What was it that had Twilight so damned spooked?'_ Walking over to the desk, he reached up and grabbed the book from its place. He opened it up on the marked page and began reading it, at first with curiosity, but then with growing unease and lastly, as with Twilight, fear.

According to the book, the camp set up on the second hill to Ponyville's south was a military one. It was an army. A Mountain Troll army.

* * *

Nightfall at last descended and the rain continued to pour. One by one, the lights of Ponyville dimmed out, leaving the town in the dark. The only flickers of light that remained visible to the naked eye shone from the second hill to the south…where the Grey Troll army was waiting.

The army of trolls, the one that had marched all the way across the hillsides of Equestria, had now retired to their organised columns of black tents. Like with all armies, strict discipline was enforced upon its soldiers and their scheduling required them to retire at sundown, that is, save for the sentries and other permitted individuals.

One sentry sat at his post on the hill, right on the edge of the hilltop. His 'post' actually comprised of a small fire made from inferior wood to keep him warm; a wooden log on which he sat; a telescope set up next to him; a bayonet placed at his feet and a tall lit torch that he impaled into the wet ground next to him. Both fires were flickering wildly, striving to stay alit against the rain and the sentry spent most of his time trying to keep them going, keeping him astray from his duties.

The sentry himself was utterly drenched, after spending the last few hours out in this dreadful weather, along with the other selected few chosen to do this job. He could see their dithering lights across the hilltop and imagined they were probably as miserable as he was. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to be inside his tent, sleeping on his stiff collapsible bed, cozied up with his rock hard pillow and wafer-thin blanket, because even those tough accommodations dwarfed the brutal elements he was exposed to. The grey raincoat he wore over his dark green uniform was being pelted by the bullet-like raindrops, protecting from most of the rain at least, but not from the biting cold. His ushanka was saturated to the point of the water leaking out and running down his grey face, down to the tip of his monstrous nose where it dripped like a tap and down through his long tucked in black hair, where it then uncomfortably ran down his neck to his back.

He needed a smoke. He retracted his arms from the raincoat sleeves and dug into his uniform's pockets, pulled something out and pushed his arms back out through the sleeves. It was a self-folded cigarette and a box of matches. He made several attempts to light a match, but the rain made it near impossible for it to catch flame and he became increasingly annoyed when he kept failing.

"_Do you require a lighter, soldier?"_

The sentry looked up to see the shadowed figure of a fellow Grey Troll approaching him. He recognized the authoritative, baritone voice addressing him and got up onto his feet and saluted his superior.

"_I'm afraid I do, Centurion, sir."_ He answered his commanding officer in their native tongue.

The Centurion took out a silver object from his the thicker, heavier coat he was wearing and flicked a switch, causing a steady flame to appear out the top end. The sentry reached out his cigarette, and it was lit upon touch.

"_Thank you, sir."_

"_What have you to report?"_

"_Nothing, sir."_

The Centurion did not look pleased, and asked more sternly, _"Nothing at all?"_

"_Their lights have gone for the night, other than that…well, actually, there is something that's been happening the last couple of days. I'm not sure if it's all that important…"_

"_Well, get on with it!"_ He did not have time for this soldier's beating around the bush.

"_We've been spotting ponies – only a few, sir – getting too close to our camp. Not just us, but our scouts as well. Like this morning, for example; I saw one hiding in the grass at the bottom of the hill. I walked forward and he must have seen me, because he turned around and ran away as fast as he could. I think they're becoming suspicious of our presence, sir."_

"…_and you say the other sentries have experienced similar situations?"_

"_Yes, sir. In fact, if I remember correctly, the sentry to the East spotted some ponies a few hours ago."_

"_Very well, then. I'll report this to the General. Return to your duties."_

"_Yes, sir." _

As the sentry got back to his duties, the Centurion turned around and marched back deeper into the camp to deliver his news. However, passed his hard expression, he was inwardly uncertain. The General did not take well to bad news of any kind, and this most likely counted as bad.

He weaved his way in between the black tents, until he reached a larger one at the very back; the General's quarters. Bracing himself and remembering his high position, the Centurion stood up straight and marched in.

* * *

The Centurion was lucky not to have interrupted the General during anything too important that it would have incurred his ire. He was sitting down at his desk nearby his bed, with a tall green bottle, a glass and a lit candle on the desk surface. The only other trolls in the tent besides himself and the Centurion were two bearing bayonets, and a nod from their leader indicated them to leave, to which they obeyed.

Now alone with him, the Centurion quickly reported his news to his leader with a caution. One thing he and the other Centurions did whenever they had bad news was to try and phrase it in a manner that did not make it sound all that bad.

The lighting in the tent was extremely dim, with the candle being the only source. It gave off a faint amber glow, which only served to make the General look all the more intimidating for one half was illuminated by the glow, whilst the rest was bathed in the shadows.

When he was done, the General did not look pleased at all. His sharp yellow eyes dug into the Centurion like knives as he finished off his drink, placing it firmly back on the desk.

"_Then the time has come to meet with them face-to-face. Send a messenger. Tell him to bring a couple of ponies back as ambassadors."_ He instructed him in a low, menacing voice similar to a dragon's and picked up the green bottle to refill his glass with a pale blue liquid. _"He must speak the tongue of Man, like the ponies do."_

"_It shall be done, Your Excellency." _

"_You're dismissed, Centurion."_

The commanding officer stood up straight and bowed deeply before his leader and left the tent immediately afterwards. That went over better than expected.

When the Centurion was gone and the two other trolls from before re-entered the tent, retaking their guard positions, the General set down his now empty glass and reached out and extinguished the candle with his bare thumb.

Even the mightiest of conquerers must rest.

* * *

**(a/n) That's chapter one done. I admit, it's not all that long, but the chapters will as the story progresses. Please do give a review if you can.**


	3. Chapter Two: Meeting the enemy

**(a/n) Okay, everyone, I'm back with Chapter Three. I'm sorry it's taken a while, but a lot of important things do occur in this chapter. The reality of the situation comes down heavy on the ponies, and more importantly, we get to properly meet the "enemy", as well as the Big Bad himself. We also get some tense negotiations. So read on and enjoy.**

* * *

**The Battle of Ponyville**

**Chapter Two**

**Meeting the enemy**

"The Grey Troll Resistance Army, or the GTRA, was the name of the last official armed forces of the Mountain Trolls, following the devastating war against the Green Trolls centuries ago, in which they were driven out of their homeland and into the many mountains of the world…next slide, Spike."

Spike was sitting on a wooden stool right next to the slide projector at one end of the Mayor's office and doing as he was told, pressed the button to change to the next slide. It was late morning; he and Twilight Sparkle came to town hall about an hour ago, Twilight having brought a dozen of marked books and a pile of slides to back up her evidence. She was going to show what she had found to the Mayor in private, however, she had one forgotten one tiny detail that came back to bite her.

When she got to town hall, Twilight found Pinkie Pie and her four other friends waiting for her by the main doors. She mentally slapped herself on the forehead. On the first day of her research, Pinkie Pie was bugging her consistently about the matter, and trying to get her out of her mane, Twilight promised her that she would be the first to know. She sealed the deal by agreeing to Pinkie's second of clause of their friends being included, just as long as it got the hyperactive party pony out of the library.

The Mayor was first reluctant to allow the five other ponies into the meeting, but Twilight assured her there was no way they would be able to get Pinkie Pie or the others to take a hint. She had made a promise, after all.

Now the group were sitting down in the Mayor's darkened office as Twilight explained the situation to them via each picture and photograph that shone on the wall. As she did, the rest of the ponies in the room started to grow more and more uncomfortable.

The reality of the situation seemed to dawn most of all upon Pinkie Pie, whose normal excited expression had dissolved, whilst Rainbow Dash look strangely more…serious than usual. Her mouth was twitching; she was biting her lip as if she desperately wanted to say something, but was restraining herself.

"They set this up in a last attempt to reclaim their land, operating from the mountains. It pretty soon collapsed and the trolls were forced to adapt to their new lives as a stateless people," Twilight finished as they reached the final black-and-white slide of a trio of Grey Trolls sitting down by a dismal fire, up in a hostile mountain, dressed in fur coats and drinking from tin mugs. "And now…these trolls living in Equestria have got a military base just two hills away from our town. Turn off the projector, Spike." The purple dragon again did as he was told.

Rarity, the only pony who had been silent the whole time, waved her hoof in the air uncaringly and asked in her typical posh manner, "So what is it these, uhh…_trolls_ want?"

"Well, I don't really know." Twilight admitted uneasily.

"What do you mean, you "don't know"?" Rainbow Dash now spoke up loud and firm and sounding, much to the surprise of the others, angry.

"I'm not a mind reader, Rainbow Dash," Twilight Sparkle rebuked, walking up to her friend with a stern look. "All I know is who they are, not why they're here."

Yet this did not suffice the irritated Pegasus pony, who then paced up and down the office rug, and whilst she appeared angry on the surface, past that, she was deeply troubled, which gained the attention of the others.

"Rainbow…what's wrong, sugar cube?" Applejack, speaking with her sweet southern accent, came to Rainbow Dash's side and put her hoof on her shoulder.

The cyan coated Pegasus ran her own hoof down her prominent rainbow coloured mane and frowned seriously, biting her lip again and telling her friend, "All of you are thinking it, and I'm just gonna say it…_it's an invasion."_

Just saying this changed the mood of the office in a blink. Pinkie Pie's knees trembled and Fluttershy let out a hushed whimper, crouching down behind Pinkie in fear.

Putting her elbow on the desk and resting her head in her hoof, the Mayor sighed, "We don't know that for sure." Right now, the aged pony was feeling useless. She was supposed to be the town leader, the one to lead the people through a time of crisis, but at the present time, she felt like she could not do anything.

"Oh, come on!" Rainbow Dash huffed, turning to face the Mayor. "A huge army is right at our gates and a stone's throw away from Canterlot. Sorry, but it looks pretty crystal to me."

"Whatever their intentions are, there's nothing we can do at the moment," Twilight told her friend as if to try and reason with her, walking up to her, "For all we know, they want nothing to do with us, and any action we take against them could be taken as unwarranted provocation. _We'll_ be the ones seen as the bad guys."

"What? That's just—just—UGH!" With that, Rainbow Dash turned around and stomped out the office, not bothering to even slam the door and left it open by a crack. Everypony else watched her go in awe and confusion.

"What in tarnation's eating that pony?" Applejack asked incredulously, tipping her hat upwards.

"Applejack, maybe you should talk to her," Twilight suggested. "Something's bugging her, and she'll probably listen to you." Applejack nodded and left the office to follow after Rainbow Dash, closing the door behind her and leaving the other ponies to deal with the matter at hand.

The only sound in the office was now the ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner, until the Mayor broke the awkward silence, "So what am I supposed to do about this, Twilight? What _should_ I do?"

Twilight stopped and looked down at the carpet to think for a moment, until she answered, "Best thing to do right now, like I told Rainbow Dash, is nothing. Let things play out as they are; let them make the first move, if they're planning to."

"Alright then, that's what we'll do." The Mayor readjusted her glasses, but motioned outside her office window. "I'm not sure what to tell the ponies, though. They're expecting answers."

"I guess we're just going to have to tell them the facts."

"Oh, that'll go over well," The Mayor grumbled sarcastically. "These ponies lose their minds if a penny drops. How're they gonna handle this?"

"Even so, they deserve to know the truth."

"Right, right."

* * *

Outside town hall, Applejack peered around the open space and spotted Rainbow Dash sitting down on a nearby public bench, her head sunken in a deep pout. Apprehensively, the Earth pony approached her, still pondering what to say.

The simplest words came first. "Hey, Rainbow," she said gingerly.

"Hey…" was all the grouchy Pegasus muttered in response.

"Mind if ah sit down with ya?"

"Sure, it's a free absolute monarchy."

Applejack did so and a brief pause later, she spoke again, "Ya left in a bit of a huff back there. Everything okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Don't look that way to me."

Rainbow Dash stared up at her and snapped, "What are _you,_ Miss I-know-absolutely-everything-about-nothing? I…" When she saw Applejack's hurt look, she regretted it and frowned too, and turned her head back to facing the ground, "...I'm sorry."

"It's 'kay." Applejack accepted her apology in a more hushed voice.

Rainbow Dash rubbed her hooves against her temples and went on to explain, now in a more frustrated tone, "Look, I'm just…I'm scared, okay?"

"Everypony's scared." Applejack reassured her, gesturing with hooves. "For all we know, it might just be a whole lotta nothin'."

"_No,"_ She gave Applejack the most serious face the latter had ever seen her give anypony. "No, it isn't, Applejack. That's what you, Twilight, and everypony else doesn't get." Rainbow Dash looked up towards the south, glaring at the flag that flew menacingly over the land. "This is much, _much_ worse than you guys think it is! Nothing good is gonna come out of them being here. I know that better than anypony."

"How?"

She closed her eyes and bit her lip the third time that day, this time hard enough it could have pierced, "...I don't wanna talk about it."

Suddenly, there were a chorus of shrieks and both ponies spun their heads in its direction. They were shocked to see dozens ponies were dashing past them as if they were running away from something, fear and terror engraved on their faces!

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rainbow Dash got back all fours and she and Applejack tried to stop the fleeing ponies and talk with one of them. "Where's the fire?" She then spotted a familiar face running past them in the chaos.

It was Scootaloo, the young orange Pegasus who was known to hero worship Rainbow Dash to extreme levels. Stretching her foreleg out in front of the filly to stop her going any further, Rainbow Dash addressed her over the yelling of the other running ponies, "Whoa, Scootaloo, hold it!" When she saw how distressed the young one looked, she put her hooves on her shoulders and talked to her calmly, trying to calm her down, "Tell me what's going on?"

* * *

Back in the Mayor's office, Twilight and the Mayor, tailed by Rarity, Pinkie, Spike and Fluttershy were about to leave through the double doors. After going over it one more time, they decided to call a town meeting now to deliver the bad news to the citizens.

Just as Twilight was about to open the doors, the flung open from the other side, making the five take a few steps back. Rainbow Dash was standing there, panting and beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

"What is this, 'open office day?'" The Mayor asked rhetorically and exasperatedly.

"Guys, you've gotta come outside, _now!"_

Twilight rolled her eyes and asked doubtfully, "Okay, RB, what could've possible happened since the last time I saw you?"

"_They're here."_

* * *

The group made their way out town hall and across the town to the southern entrance. When they reached it, they saw, to their relief and slight annoyance at the people's overreaction, that it was not an army of Mountain Trolls riding on boarback and wielding weapons of destruction and roaring battle cries. In fact, it was something far, far less intimidating.

It was a Grey Troll. Not an army or a platoon of them. It was just one single troll, riding on boarback and waving a smaller version of his army's flag in one hand whilst the other held onto the reins.

As he approached the entrance to the town, despite there being only one of him, the ponies that were still hovering around the southern entrance kept taking steps back the more he got closer. The only ones in between this large gap between both parties were the Mayor, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, the latter of whom had now regained her previous anger and glared fierily at the new arrival, who halted his boar at the entrance.

He looked the archetype of a troll soldier. His face was pale grey had been beaten hard by the mountain wind and characterised most by the monstrous nose and sunken sallow yellow eyes that were typical to all races of troll. He also had the long, oily black hair common among Mountain Trolls that dropped from under his ushanka to his shoulders.

Dismounting his boar and impaling his flag into the ground, the soldier dusted himself off, stood up straight and walked forward into town. His eyes were fixed on the trio standing in front of him, more specifically the one that came across like she wanted to rip him in two, instead of the trembling equines in the distance.

When he was a few feet away, he stopped and took a moment to examine three ponies before him. There was utter silence, enough so that you could hear a pin drop a mile away, until the soldier cleared the phlegm in his throat and spoke to them with his people's respective bow.

"I apologize for intruding upon your town unannounced." His speech was that of the language of Man, albeit with a thick troll accent. "I assure you that I come in peace. Do I have the pleasure of addressing the leader of this commune?" He asked the last part looking at the trio inquisitively with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight Sparkle, already dumbfounded by the presence of a Grey Troll who could fluently speak the Man language, raised her hoof and pointed to the aged bespectacled Earth pony next to her.

"Um…uhh…that'd be me." Mayor answered, strangely sounding unsure.

The soldier bowed once more respectfully and addressed her directly, "Madame Mayor, I come to your town as a representative of both my camp and my people."

"What do you want, troll?" Rainbow Dash demanded confrontationally, taking a few daring steps forward. "We've seen your little campsite, so what're you doing here? If you're here to cause trouble-"

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight Sparkle hissed at her. She did not want her friend's hot-headedness causing their people any unnecessary problems.

"Peace, my pony friends, peace! She is right, I should state my purpose. You see, my leaders have sent me here to humbly request that two ponies of your choosing may accompany me back to our camp." The soldier explained after holding his hands up, then placing the tips of his fingers together. "That is, in the position of unofficial ambassadors, of course. His Excellency, the General is most anxious of all to meet you."

Twilight Sparkle then spoke for the first time to the new arrival, asking him with a hint of suspicion, "Well, that does sound nice, but if I may ask...why exactly do your leaders wish to speak with us?"

He took a handkerchief from his jacket and dabbed the sweat on his forehead, replying, "That information, I'm afraid, I cannot divulge with you. I am what you may call a courier. My mission is simply to escort you there."

"Alright, G.I. Jerk, if you can't tell us that, then the least you can tell us who "His Excellency, the General" is," Rainbow Dash was clearly still trying to pick a fight. "You speak high of him enough."

"He is none other than "he who shakes the mountains", the strong, wise leader of us all," the troll soldier described his leader with a great sense of patriotism and loyalty. "He is General Kromm Hakhavar. Surely you have heard of his exploits."

General Hakhavar. A chill ran down the spine of everypony. The mention of that name managed to change the mood in a second.

The Mayor leaned into Twilight and whispered to her, _"I thought he was dead."_

The lavender Unicorn seemed trapped in deep thought, as if she were trying to make an ethically challenging decision on the spot. She stared at the earth as she did this, pawing at it with her hoof. Finally, she raised her vision to the troll and said with confidence, "I see. _I'll_ go with you, then."

Before anypony could raise their voice to try and stop her, Rainbow Dash added, "Me too." She no longer came across as wanting a fight, but her uncharacteristic seriousness remained. Twilight too was surprised by this and was about to voice her protest, but Rainbow's glare stopped her.

"Very well, if you're ready, we might go along now."

* * *

The travel to the second hill would not normally have taken long, but the troll was riding his boar at a casual pace and the two pony "ambassadors" were flanking him from a considerable distance. In fact, they insisted of him taking a lead, mostly because they wanted to be able to talk with each other in private.

"Rainbow Dash, are you okay?" Twilight whispered to her as they began climbing up the first hill, low crunching noises being made as their hooves pushed down on the frosty grass. "You seem kinda…unlike yourself today."

"This just isn't how I imagined I'd spend my Saturday," Rainbow Dash shrugged, trying to sound indifferent, though she failed.

"C'mon, Rainbow, you've been acting moody ever since the meeting in the Mayor's office. Tell me what's wrong."

"_Nothing's_ wrong."

Twilight narrowed her large sparkling eyes and nudged her friend, telling her more sternly, "You're a bad liar, Rainbow, so don't bother trying." She then tried to sound more reasoning, "Have you got some sorta, I dunno, problem with trolls?"

"Noooo, whatever gave you THAT idea?" the Pegasus replied sarcastically.

"Hey, no need to get sarcastic. I just wanna understand what the problem is. I mean, I'm your friend, Rainbow Dash, you know you can tell me anything."

Hearing this caused Rainbow Dash to close her eyes, lowered her head and sigh loudly. After a moment, she looked back at her friend and said in a rather dark manner than before, "You _are_ my friend, Twilight. But there are just some things a pony needs to keep to herself, and a friend should understand of that, so let's drop it."

Although this saddened Twilight Sparkle, she knew her friend was right to maintain her privacy and decided not to press the matter any further. She just nodded and they continued their short journey to the troll army camp on the second hill and they found themselves about to scale said taller hill.

Finding the silence hard to bear, Rainbow Dash said to Twilight, as if there had been no previous conversation, "So…ya know anything about this Blagabar guy?"

"General Hakhavar," Twilight corrected her. "He's a troll warlord and leader, perhaps the most famous of modern times." She went on to demonstrate her wide-ranging knowledge with a hint of pride, "He's conquered, if my books are correct, a total of twelve mountains."

"Well, whoop-de-doo," Rainbow Dash twirled her hoof in mid-air, obviously far from impressed. "Lemme know when I'm supposed to be impressed." This made Twilight smile a bit, for this sounded more like the Rainbow Dash she knew and loved.

"Not a lot is recorded about his earlier years. All that's been uncovered is that he killed the chieftain of his mountain's tribe, took it over and it all went up hill for him from there."

Rainbow Dash rolled her large shiny eyes, "Okay, so he's self-made troll who made his way up the food chain through killing. How's this supposed to help us?"

She grinned and patted her Pegasus friend on the shoulder. "It means he's not some relic from the old years. He's a troll of the people and so he'll be easier to talk to."

"I'm not sure it'll be that-"

"We're here," the troll soldier announced, holding his hand up to stop them.

Both ponies froze at seeing the Grey Troll campsite before them. The scale of it alone was enough to leave them stuck like deer caught in headlines and their mouths could only gape open and close like fish. The wide spanning rows of black tents stretched out in endless columns; the open spaces were jammed with uniformed trolls who were either singing, gorging, dancing or fighting, and a thick, hot smell of burnt meat filled their nostrils, making them cough and their eyes water.

"Follow me; I'll take you to his tent." The ponies did not need a second invite.

* * *

As the tent in which they were to meet the General was at the centre of the camp, the two pony ambassadors had to go deeper into the dark, foreboding place than they would have liked. They passed by the well-constructed tents and several areas where they saw more up close the troll soldiers engaged in their various activities.

In one small circle where trolls were sitting down, what looked like a large piece of mutton was being cooked on a spit. The trolls were holding plates and smacking their lips with hunger, meat being a main part of their diet. One of them was playing an accordion and another a balalaika, to play a tune for themselves and their comrades whilst they ate. They conversed in their native tongue, of which only Twilight Sparkle was only able to partially decipher.

When a few of them caught eye of the two passing ponies, they let out wolf whistles and some yelled out things in their language, which received laughs and cheers from the rest. Neither pony had to understand their tongue to get the idea that it was something crude and chauvinistic.

"Why I oughta-" Rainbow Dash looked like she was about to do something that would have landed her and the rest of Ponyville in a heap of trouble, but thankfully, Twilight Sparkle restrained her and forced her back along their original path.

"You must forgive the soldiers." The soldier excused his comrades, though giving them a disapproving look out the corner of his eyes. They have not been around females of any species for a while now."

At last, they reached the larger tent they had been heading towards. The soldier explained to them as they neared it that it was often used for discussing battle plans and tactics, as well as other uses like meeting delegates of the enemy. That last part did not do well to quell Rainbow Dash's re-emerging anger and suspicion.

"You will wait out here, whilst I go in," the soldier told them more authoritatively just as he grabbed one of the flaps of the tent's entrance. "The General may or may not be preoccupied with other matters at the moment, so I need to make sure he's ready to see you."

"You'd like us to wear leashes, too?" Rainbow Dash scoffed.

Not bothering to answer, the soldier muttered something under his breath and slithered into the tent. Nothing could be heard from outside, and so the only sounds the ponies heard at that point were crackling flames, folk music and the voices of soldiers, all in the distance.

Having this moment gave Twilight Sparkle time to think, and the more she thought, the more she began to worry. What if this General was not as relatable as she first thought and worse, his intentions were hostile? They had better not botch this up, otherwise this could get seriously ugly. She did not worry about herself, of course, she could keep a levelled head. It was Rainbow Dash she was worried about. That girl strong headed even normal circumstances, but with this seemingly unfounded distain of trolls, how in the world could Twilight expect her to stay cool?

"Maybe…maybe I should do all the talking," she suggested, and added upon seeing Rainbow Dash's expression, "It's just that, you know, I'm good at this sorta thing."

"Don't worry…" Rainbow Dash murmured, glancing the other way. "I'll only speak when I think I've got something important to say."

"Why does that not fill me with confidence?"

Their conversation was disrupted when the troll soldier re-emerged from the tent and said to them, "Alright, he will see you now. This is where I leave you." He marched off in a different direction from the ponies and the tent, not before looking back at them and giving them some advice in a less formal manner, "And I just want to give ya a fair warning; his, uh…appearance takes a bit to warm up to." He then quickly disappeared into the campsite, leaving the ponies alone.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash eyed each uneasily before bracing themselves and trotting inside the tent, side by side.

* * *

Inside the tent, there was little else but an old wooden table and a couple of flickering torches sticking up from the ground. On top of the table were a few glasses and couple of bottles, two glasses and a bottle each set on the far ends. Sat down on an armchair at the far end of the table was a Grey Troll with two others of his kind standing to his left and right, both bearing bayonets and whose uniforms included red trimmings and barrettes instead of ushankas. These were obviously personal guards and the troll sitting down in between them was, without a doubt, the General, Kromm Hakhavar.

General Hakhavar was much larger in size compared to most trolls either pony had seen in their lifetimes. He had to be at least twice the height of the average troll and was of much larger girth. From a first glance, you might have guessed he had eaten a whole fellow troll, or even two. Yet his frame did not make him look any less intimidating; in fact, it actually made him _more_ intimidating, like he could at any moment lunge forth and swallow you whole. His face, as hinted by the troll soldier, was not at all pleasant to look at, having the ability to make the person he was talking to feel ill. Both his eyes were sallow yellow, but the left one bulged out from its socket; his large nose appeared damaged, like a huge chunk was missing from it; one of his ears looked torn and a collection of scars, scratches and what looked like pockmarks marred his already unpleasant face. Unlike his soldiers, who wore dark green uniforms and ushankas, Hakhavar wore more appropriate General's attire, including a black short sleeved army officer's jacket decorated with a ridiculous amount of medals on his left breast pocket and a peaked cap on top his head.

Whilst their eyes were focused on Hakhavar, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash found that they had overlooked a fourth troll in the tent. He was sitting down at the table near his General, wearing more of an officer's uniform as well. Unlike his General, he was a weed of a troll, half the height and half the size. He stood up from his seat, walked around the table and showed the ponies to their seats at the opposite end of the table. When they had done so (keeping in mind how hard and uncomfortable this was due to their anatomy), he then went to the middle of the table and was the first to speak.

"Your Excellence, we present to you the ambassadors of Ponyville, um…?" He spoke to General Hakhavar respectfully, but then became nervous as he stopped in midsentence and turned to the ponies as if to silently ask for their names.

"Twilight….Sparkle, a-and this is Rainbow Dash," Twilight introduced themselves, sweat now slowly forming under the fringe of her mane.

"…Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash," he continued his introduction quickly, acting like he had not stopped in the first place and next faced them to introduce his leader. "Ambassadors Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, I present to you His Excellency, His Tremendousness, Field Marshal General, Shaker of the Mountains and Lord of All Grey Trolls in this World and Beyond, Kromm Hakhavar." He now looked out of breath, but so would most after having pronounced such a superfluously long title.

General Hakhavar raised his enormous hand. "Alright, that's enough. Leave us." He had a voice that growled from the deep recesses of his throat. His accent sounded common, nothing really setting it apart from that of other trolls, but its deepness and menace made it one that commanded authority nonetheless. The subservient troll bowed respectfully and exited the tent, leaving the three trolls and two ponies by themselves.

"Well…" Hakhavar said expectedly, motioning his hand towards the glasses and bottles on the table. "What're you waiting for? Help yourselves to a drink." Twilight dithered momentarily but, using her magic horn, levitated the bottle and poured its contents into the two glasses. "It's fresh spring water from the seventh mountain."

"Thanks," Rainbow Dash mumbled, taking a sip from the water, which she could not deny was of great quality.

One of Hakkavar's personal guards scowled and grunted threateningly, "That is 'thank you, _sir'_, pony!"

"Huh?" She raised an eyebrow. Obviously, she knew what she did wrong, and was only intentioned to stir anger.

"His Excellence is to be addressed by you as 'sir' or 'General' as a show of respect-"

"Oh, shut up, you idiot," the General told him simply, glowering at him over his shoulder. "This isn't a ceremony, it's a meeting. Get over yourself." He shook his head exasperatedly and got back to his meeting with the ponies, "Soldiers, eh? Now getting onto businesses, I have to say I'm glad to make the acquaintance of you two ponies. You're the first of your kind I've ever met…though you _are_ a lot _smaller_ than I expected."

Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow, thinking to herself, _'Too bad I can't say the same for you.'_

Wanting to break the ice, Twilight made the first move on behalf of her country. "Yeah, that's why we're often called "little ponies". And if I may, I'd like to say that it's, uh…it's truly an honour to meet you as well, General," She said to the star-studded General politely, though she was at the same time trying hard to stare at his bulging eye…and his other facial deformities. "Stories of your exploits have reached the ears of ponies, as well."

Hakhavar let out a low chuckle, "Is that so?"

"Oh yes," she smiled, hoping to curry his favour as best she could, even though the circumstances restricted this. "We know how you dominated the eastern mountains of Equestria within a year, and the countless enemies you've crushed. You're most famous, General."

"Come now," Hakhavar grinned, flashing his many golden teeth. "I am fully aware of my fame…_and_ infamy. I didn't call you all the way here just to compliment me."

"Uh, no, of course not."

"I call you hear because, well, let's face it, you've surely all seen my army from your town, and I simply wish to clear up any misunderstandings."

Such a revelation put their minds at ease. A smile appeared on the Unicorn's face and even the disgruntled Pegasus' mood started to improve. If by 'misunderstandings', he was referring to the idea of invasion, then they had nothing to fear. Twilight pushed a loose strain of her mane back and cleared her throat before saying, "Well, yes, your presence here has worried some of our people. As you probably know, we're a peaceful people and we don't want any trouble."

Hakhavar narrowed his devilish eyes and asked now with suspicion, "What are you implying by that?"

Realising that she had just made a potential mistake, Twilight did her best to retract her previous statement. "I don't mean to imply anything, General. It's just that an army right outside our town, and our country's capital's given some ponies the wrong idea."

"_Which…_ponies?"

"Ponies like me."

It had come from Rainbow Dash, who was now standing up from her chair and on all fours again. Twilight Sparkle buried her head in her hooves, practically praying that what she knew was about to happen did not happen.

"I'm sorry, what's your name again?"

"My name is Rainbow Dash," she answered defiantly.

He raised his head, revealing a medium-sized wiry black beard and he scratched it a second. "So then, Rainbow Dash, I can only assume from that that you don't trust me."

"No…to be honest, I don't trust any troll as far as I can throw 'em, and that's not a lot!"

Twilight Sparkle squenched her eyes shut and clenched her teeth. She knew it! She knew Rainbow Dash would do something like this! Now they were most surely doomed

Yet, to her and Rainbow Dash's amazement and somewhat relief, Hakhavar did something they did not expect in the least. He threw back his head and laughed a loud, haughty, boisterous laugh. They, or at least Twilight, presumed he was going to go into a fit of range and maybe even turn over the table, so this caught them off guard.

Hakhavar slugged one of his guards on the shoulder and pointed to Rainbow Dash, stating with only the occasional chuckle to get in the way, "Okay, now _you _I like! You're headstrong and full of wit. You remind me a lot of me when I was younger."

"Trust me, we're nothing alike."

"Of course not. You walk on four legs, I walk on two. That's a pretty big difference."

The lavender Unicorn tried to squeeze back into the dialogue and piped up, "Look, General, we'd just like to why you're here, s-so we can put our people's minds at ease and-"

"Oh, for the love of-Dude, are you gonna invade us or not?"

"DASH!"

"What?"

Back at the other end of the table, General Hakhavar picked up his bottle and filled his own glass, and called down the table as he did, "Hey, don't blame her if she happens to be right."

They stopped glaring at each other and spun their heads around in the General's direction. Twilight blinked and stuttered a bit, "W-wait, what do you mean?"

"I mean she's right. We _are_ going to invade you."

Silence fell on the room. Twilight felt like the blood in her veins had literally turned to ice. Nothing could have prepared her for the devastating news that came out of the General's mouth like it was an irrelevant side note. Even when the likely possibility of this was shoved in her face before this meeting, having it confirmed right in front of her was enough to make her like a huge block of ice just dropped into her belly.

Rainbow Dash meanwhile, did not look betrayed, devastated or fearful at the prospect of the General's words. No, she looked pissed off.

"What did I say?" She slammed her hoof as hard as she could against the table, though her anger did not seem directed entirely at General Hakhavar, but also partially to Twilight Sparkle. She was angry at her friend's previous ignorance, and how only now she finally comprehended the trolls' clear villainous intentions. **"WHAT-DID-I-SAY?"**

"Why?" Twilight demanded, standing up on all fours from her chair, completely ignoring Rainbow Dash. Her anger, so often buried deep within her, had now emerged, roaring like fire. "Why are you doing this? We haven't done anything to you!"

General Hakhavar pulled out a lighter and thick cigar from his jacket pockets and lit the latter. "Hey, don't flatter yourselves. I have nothing against your kind," He started puffing the cigar, smoke hissing out from his nostrils and the corner of his mouth. "I actually respect you; you're a proud, civilised people who have excelled in industry and the arts. You just happen to be in our future's way."

He snapped his fingers and one of his guards walked over to the opposite end of the table. The girls initially thought he was going to attack them, until he pulled out a folded piece of old paper, unfolded it and set it out on the table in front of them. What was written on it made Twilight gasp in horrified realisation.

It was a map of Equestria; every city, every town, every forest, every mountain, every body of water, _everything._ The quality of the paper was not very good, and the drawings on the map looked dated, but even so, it had to be one of the most detailed and beautifully drawn maps Twilight had ever laid eyes upon. What made it stand out was its marring by black and red pencil linings. All the largest mountains on the map – the ones controlled by Hakhavar – were encircled in black and arrows jutting out from them were pointing towards the nearest settlement: Manehattan, Trotscow, Hoofington, Trottingham, and the most frightening of all, _Canterlot._ It was then that she noticed the title inscribed at the top in black ink: _OPERATION: GREY STORM._

"It's not just us, is it?" She whispered, raising her head to him and her eyes watering. "You're going after our whole country."

"Yes, I am," he replied firmly, a certain darkness becoming prominent in his eyes. For the first time since their meeting, he stood up from his chair and casually began pacing up and down the right side of his table, arms behind his back. "Please try to understand, Twilight Sparkle. For centuries now, my people have been without a homeland. We have been forced to live as mere tribes up in the harsh mountains. No one has even tried to help us regain a land for ourselves. They abandoned us to the cold. YOU abandoned us!" He added the last part accusingly, his voice grew angrier the more he proceeded with his likely rehearsed speech, so full of righteous indignation and claim of the moral high ground. It was that kind of roaring anger which Hakhavar was known for. "We're aware that the only way to get it done is to do it ourselves, and that is through actions, not words. Yet we became so splintered, so fragmented, that it would never have happened…that is, until _I_ came…" Hakhavar's tone changed to that of rightful pride, talking high of himself, though in the manner that he could easily be waved off a pathetic egotist. "When I took over tribe's mountain, I wasn't going to stop there. I organised my forces and went to conquer more and more tribes, until I had the closest thing my people can right now call their nation."

From what the ponies could understand, this General saw himself pretty much as his peoples' saviour. As a result, he had bestowed upon himself almost divine status. It was now no wonder his title was so long and praising.

"And who do you think are?" Rainbow Dash yelled, scoffing at what she saw as nothing else but arrogance from the General. "Your people's big hope?"

"Who else is going to be?" Hakhavar yelled back, tossing one hand in the air. "I've come this far, haven't I? I'm trying to do what my forefathers could not: gain a proper home! We're the ones who've been wronged here, not you!"

"But you can't take _our_ land!" Twilight was trying to appeal to whatever sense of reason and rationality Hakhavar had. "Your right, you _were_ wronged, but not at our hooves! The ones you should be taking your fight against are the Green Trolls, not us!"

The mentioning of the name of his race's natural enemy made Hakhavar's blood boil. Measureless contempt written in his face, he returned to his seat, assuring the lavender Unicorn, "Don't you worry about them, Twilight Sparkle, their time will come soon enough. But for now, here's what's going to happen…" This was the part he was looking forward to during the whole meeting. "I have armies stationed and ready to mobilize all around Equestria. Your town is right outside your capital, Canterlot, and so will act as a perfect base from which this army can launch an assault on it. When news is sent back to my armies that Ponyville has fallen, they'll know what to do." He raised his arms, reaching the climax of his prediction of what was to come. "And then, as chaos engulfs Equestria, my army will lay siege to Canterlot. The city will fall, the Princesses will fall and your country will FALL!"

"Oh! And lemme guess," Rainbow Dash snapped, trying to disrupt this madman's ravings. "After that, you're gonna make yourself King of your new troll country, am I right? Please tell me I'm right!"

Hakhavar then scratched his beard again in thought. "Well, actually, we're still debating whether we're going to make it a kingdom or a republic, but don't threat, I'll be at the helm no matter what happens."

"But why are you telling us all this?" It would later amaze Twilight herself why she was asking this of all questions, considering the severity of the matter. "I mean, we could just contact the Princesses and they can send a whole army here."

A sneer formed on Hakhavar's face and he crossed his arms. "Oh, please, kid! How long do you think I've been planning this? I got inside guys who've been working at the palace for years. Any letters you send about us will be torn to shreds! You're on your own!"

Twilight's eyes shot open. She now fully understood that this was no common brute whose only plan was to go charging in, guns a blazing. This was an experienced military tactician who knew damn well what he was doing.

"But there's another reason I'm telling you this," Hakhavar clicked his tongue leaned back in his chair and put his hands together. "You see, I want as many trolls as I can for my siege on Canterlot – the more and the merrier, and all that – and all my armies will be in position within a fortnight. So I'm giving you ponies a choice to make within that time; if you do not resist our occupation and let us move towards Canterlot, then you shall live." He shrugged and chuckled half-heartedly, "In fact, you will all receive special treatment under the new regime. Hell, I'll even Knight the two of you."

"And if we don't?" Rainbow Dash stuck her noes in the air.

The tremendous Grey Troll's expression turned serious once again. "Then you all die. From the youngest filly to oldest mere." He snapped his fingers. "Just like that. So…" He shrugged again and asked, expecting a certain answer, "What have you to say to that?"

Not needing any moment to think it over, Twilight gave their answer straight away, telling the General slowly and seriously, "Our town is not a road. What you're asking of us is to betray our Princesses. We can't do that."

"So what're you saying? You're actually willing to fight us?"

"I can't speak for all my people, but yes."

Hakhavar no longer looked amused, but instead rather irritated. "Oh, come on! They're like, what, four hundred of you? This army consists of one thousand soldiers alone!" He boomed, stretching out his arms to demonstrate the size and might of his power. "Do the math, pony."

"If you want to get to Canterlot, then sorry, you'll have to go through us, first," Twilight merely reiterated her fixed position.

"I don't think that's for you to decide. You have two weeks until we march on your town, and that'll give you plenty of time to come to your senses. But here's a little warning for you: if we see as much as one pony with a spear…consider yourselves glue. Is that clear enough?"

"Crystal…_sir,"_ Rainbow Dash growled, emphasising the last part with contempt.

A pause followed, until Twilight Sparkle turned around and made her way out the tent. "C'mon, Rainbow Dash. We're done here."

Rainbow Dash followed after her friend, not before stopping a second to glare at the troll who was planning to bring her people so much grief out the corner of her eye. She made a promise to herself never to forget his face. If she did, then how else would she remember to personally rip his throat out? As far Hakhavar himself, he at first shrugged it off, but would later find it bothering him. Something about that young, bold Pegasus seemed familiar, he just could not put his finger on it.

When both ponies had gone, one of Hakhavar's guards leaned in and asked him, "Would you like us to go and escort them out the camp?"

"No," he answered uncaringly. He noticed the glass of water in front of him that he had not yet touched. "Let them go. This might just be interesting…" Hakhavar picked up his glass, downed his drink in an instant and laughed to himself one more time.

* * *

**(a/n) And that is Chapter Two. I hope you enjoyed reading it. The strength of the chapter mostly comes from the second half, in my opinion. Anyway, please do leave a review if you can and I'll catch you again soon.**


	4. Chapter Three: Loyalty or Reality?

**(a/n) Hey, everyone, I'm back with an update for the story. First, I would like to apologize for the fact that it has been far too long since I last updated, so yeah, sorry. I mean, it's been nearly a month, and that's pretty bad. But the reason for that is, well, two things. One: I had a bit of a mental block, I think, if I remember correctly. I had a bit of a difficult time trying to figure what and how I was going to carry out next and such and where to go up to, the latter of which I decided today, though it does not go as far as I would have liked it to originally. Second: work as Sixth Form has literally been hell. I mean seriously, I've felt like I was on the verge of a breakdown more than once over the last month. But I'm feeling okay now and am confident with getting along with this fic. So, without any further adieu, here's chater three. **

* * *

**The Battle of Ponyville**

**Chapter Three**

"Any attempt at a defence of the town is folly!"

Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash returned to Ponyville upon mid-afternoon. Neither said a word to any of the ponies who clamoured around them as they walked through the entrance of the town. Both went straight to the Mayor's office, and told her everything that had transpired back at the Troll camp. Needless to say, she was not glad to hear the news.

An assembly of the town pony elders was held immediately. In times of emergency or crisis, the local elders would convene to deliberate and try to figure out a way to resolve the matter. Such assemblies were quite rare and so you would imagine the elders' surprise when they received summons to drop whatever it was they were doing and come right to the town hall.

The Elder Assembly chamber was a small stone walled circular room with several levels filled with rows of seats for the elders to sit down. There was no electricity in the room, so the only light in the room came from lit torches that were bolted to the wall. This, accompanied by the cavernousness of the room made it appear eerily a lot like a dungeon than a place to discuss politics.

It took only moments before the issue divided the chamber into the two most obvious groups; those against any form of military action against the trolls, and those advocating a full defence of the town. They sat opposite each other accordingly. Anyone else was 'undecided' and sat at the edges of each group.

A hunched-over ancient Earth pony with a greyed bluish coat and black Fu Manchu moustache and wearing a black gown sat in the middle of the group against action. He was currently the pony talking at the present time. Cleaning and then readjusting his foggy glasses, he spoke again in his croaky voice, "If what the representatives say is true, then setting up a defensive around Ponyville will only lead to disaster of unimaginable proportions. Grim though it be, the only way to guarantee our safety is, as the representatives said, to not retaliate."

The Mayor was sitting at a chair in the middle of the room, holding a ceremonial staff in her hoof. It was her job as mayor to act as the Speaker of the meeting when it was convened. She tapped the staff against the stone floor and said, "Thank you, Mr Gong. Does the case in favour have a rebuttal to this?"

The group in favour, quite smaller in comparison, looked amongst each other for one of them to speak. Granny Smith was one of the group, though it was unlikely she had anything to say. One old mere stood up and debated, "Whilst I can agree in some respect with that Mr Gong is saying, we cannot just stand back and let this upstart army of Trolls march into a town and allow them to attack our capital. By doing nothing, we will be putting the security of our country at risk. We cannot allow that."

An elder of the group against reasoned, "But the Trolls possess more soldiers than our entire population. We need to be realistic. What would come from fighting the invaders? Weeping martyrs?"

"But willingly allowing them march on Canterlot is equivalent to betrayal against the royal family!" Another elder of the group in favour responded irately.

One of the undecided elders, a greasy black coated pony who although aged was still considerably younger than most of his counterparts chose now to give his piece. "Let's please not use the patriotism card here," he had a Troskovite accent, indicating his origins were not from Ponyville, just as how Gong's name and accent hinted origins towards the Equestrian Far East. "I agree with both sides. We morally don't want to put Canterlot and our country in danger but we don't, with justification, want to our people to get slaughtered. So it's loyalties vs. reality. The way I see it, we can't win either way. Pick our poison."

The chamber then broke out in endless squabble, each side going over the same points as before or trying to add something new. It was hard to make out what exactly they were saying as their persistent chatter overlapped each other. The Mayor, Celestia bless her, was trying to keep things in order, but it proved futile.

Just then, a whistle made itself heard throughout the chamber, making most of the elders look up towards the source of the sound. They found it came from the entrance, which was located at top of the chamber and lead down a spiralling staircase to each row of seats and the ground floor where the Mayor was.

Twilight Sparkle climbed down the stairs, Spike by her side, addressing the assembly as she did in a formal, serious manner, "Elders, forgive my interruption, but I'd like to speak before you all."

"Who are you?" The lead mare of the in favour group asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm one of the representatives to the troll camp, ma'am," she answered nonchalantly and then pointed to Spike. "And this is my assistant, Spike, but he's only here to accompany me. I'm the only pony who requests a moment of your time."

"And on what grounds do you wish to speak, might I ask?" Gong asked sternly, tilting his glasses as he stared at the unicorn as if analysing her. "I needn't remind you that this is a meeting of the town's _Elders."_

"I understand, Mr Gong, but I'm using the Elders Assembly Act of 1451." Twilight responded matter-of-factly, her and Spike now reaching the bottom of the stairs and standing by the Mayor's chair. "It states that a pony of any age may contribute to the Assembly if said contribution is relevant and helpful towards the progress of the Assembly. Am I correct, Mayor?"

The Mayor was silent for a brief moment to think this over in her head, trying to remember on the spot one of thousands of existing laws in Equestria. She remembered the one Twilight Sparkle was referring to and nodded, and Spike quietly took his place next to the Mayor's chair, giving friend space to speak.

Trotskovich ran his hoof over his thick, black moustache and said to his fellow Elders, leaning back in his seat, "I would like to hear what she has to say."

"Thank you. If it is then alright with the Mayor, may I proceed?" The Mayor nodded and Twilight looked up to face the dozens of elders glancing down expectedly at her, their greyed eyes burrowing into the unicorn as if they were analysing her. After all, who was this arrogant young pony, so sure and confident that she could cure the illness facing their town with her new age, textbook ideas, in comparison to their life experience?

You see, knowing the politics of Equestria well, Twilight Sparkle had been anticipating this assembly after their meeting at the troll army camp. Therefore, upon her return to Ponyville, she went right back to the library in order to prepare a presentation of sorts. She hadn't that much time to prepare it, so she was going to have to partly improvise. It was important she got this across to the assembly when she could.

"Elders of Ponyville, I understand the plight we are all together sharing at the moment, and the weight that's currently on your shoulders. Make no mistake; I respect your years of wisdom, but of course, even the wise sometimes need help. I've listened to your debating and to an extent, you're all right. When you really look at it, we can't win either way," she now came off more cross and put it quite bluntly, "So...all we're doing right now is deciding who gets it in the neck;_ us or our entire species."_

This caused quite a stir amongst the elders, and by the sound of it, it was a rather negative reception.

Gong leaned over the railings in front of his seat and glared at her, saying sharply, "I was under the impression, young one, you had a point you wanted to make, rather than simply echo what we have all said already. I trust this is still the case?"

"Do not worry, Mr Hoofinton, it is," Twilight replied, noticing their aggravated looks. She shrugged and started pacing around the limited space surrounding the Mayor's chair. "What I'm proposing quite simply is that we go with the group here," she motioned her hoof towards the group in favour of defensive action and shrugged, "We fight."

Most of the elders either scoffed or outright laughed at this.

"You actually make it sound easy," Trotskovich sneered, flashing his rotted yellow teeth.

"Oh, I'm aware it's by no means easy, I assure you," she conceded, though making sure not to lose her credibility by keeping up a serious tone. "But…that doesn't make it impossible. Many of you may not believe it, and I can understand that, but a defensive manoeuvre capable of holding off the Mountain Trolls _is_ possible."

Gong had already had enough of this kid. "And what exactly makes you so confident about that, hmmm?" He demanded almost accusingly. "You sound pretty sure of yourself, though I personally would like to know what knowledge or experience you can base this rather bold assumption on!"

Spike, who up until now had been practically mute, stepped forward and angrily confronted the irate pony elder. "Oh, come on, hear her out! I mean, for Pete's sake, do you even know who this is?" He was not prepared to let his good friend be swept aside like some nobody, although his sudden outburst surprised even him, that is, when he looked back on it later on.

"No," Gong crossed his hooves doubtfully. "Who?"

"This is Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic of the five Elements of Harmony!" Spike declared proudly, patting Twilight on her foreleg due to his short height. The lavender unicorn smiled, touched a bit by how the usually cautious Spike was taking a stand for her. "Now in case you guys haven't heard, this pony was one of the five who saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon and then after that, Discord! That's right, _the_ Discord! I think she knows what she's talking about, don't you?" This new information caught the elders by surprise, who then chattered to each other excitedly, glancing from the ponies sitting next themselves to the unicorn below, now with a heightened sense of respect and awe.

"You mean, this is _the_ unicorn?"

It was then that Granny Smith made herself heard for the first time the whole meeting, though like normal, her voice was soft and shaky, "Of course she is! This girl's saved your sorry flanks twice! She's on the level, so let her speak!"

Gong immediately recomposed himself and said apologetically to Twilight, "Oh! Oh, of course! Of course! By all means, do so, for our ears our always open to a saviour of Equestria."

Her confidence bolstered, Twilight continued to explain her ideas, knowing now she had a grasp on her audience, "Our numbers are small, without a doubt, but not enough that, under the right leadership and organisation, we can't successfully fortify the town against an invasion, be it trolls or whatever, for a certain period of time."

"Yes, but what do we do when our supplies and armaments run out?" Trotskovich asked a very sensible question. "Would we even be able to succeed in holding them off? I believe that is the most pressing issue, and I seriously doubt we can even defeat the army without the town being practically destroyed."

"We won't need to defeat them."

A silence followed that part.

"Okay, now you've lost me," said one unidentified elder.

"I only said we need to hold them off, I never said anything about beating them in battle. We just need to keep them back long enough until reinforcements arrive from Canterlot."

"But I thought you both said that would be impossible," Gong stated, his doubts about the girl once again resurfacing. "That the trolls have inside men."

"We know they do. Heck, when I got back here, I had Spike try and send a few messages. All we got back a few seconds later were a bunch of burnt ashes. But that's only the case when it comes to written mail," Twilight held up her hoof so to indicate she was getting to her main point. "This is the point, you see. We don't send a written message; we send a couple of ponies."

Granny Smith raised a hoof, making a flying gesture, "What, you mean like…by balloon?"

"The trolls will spot it," Trotskovich pointed out the obvious.

She shook her head, a smile still imprinted on her face. "Of course they would. That's why instead of flying, I put forward that they…_climb the mountain to Canterlot."_

In an instead, the chamber went up in arms. Once more, they became stratified into either for, against, or unsure. Their disorderly protests could not be made out over each other, but if one listened close enough, you could make out their arguments.

"An expedition up the mountain would take too long!"

"Not so! The record timing for doing so was one week!"

"But those were undertaken by expert climbers! We have none of those!"

The Mayor had had enough of this and slammed her staff repeatedly hard against the stone floor. She hollered over them, "Enough! Quiet! _Qui-et! _We _will_ have order in this assembly!" When things quietened down, she turned her attention back to Twilight Sparkle, readdressing her with a serious look, "Miss Sparkle, surely you realise that your ideas, whilst commendable, come across as more idealistic than they are practical."

"Maybe…but I only asked for your time to offer you my suggestion. It's entirely up to you whether you want to use them or not. Come, Spike," Twilight Sparkle and her assistant proceeded to climb back up the spiralling staircase to the chamber door, the former still talking as she did. "I've great trust in your collective wisdom to decide the right course for our country. Just try and remember the ramifications of what you say or do once I leave. Our people's fate is in your hooves. Thank you for your time." With that, the two made their way to the top and left as quietly as they entered the chamber.

Now the chamber was quiet. Most of the elders were still taking in what the unicorn had said and some were debating with themselves where they now stood. Gong was now lost for any of his political jargon; Trotskovich just sat laid back in his seat, seeming not to care what happened next, perhaps because he had deducted the outcome already, and Granny Smith sat shaking and looking around at her fellow elders, expecting one of them to say something. They did not.

The Mayor took her glasses off and rubbed her sinuses with her hoof. She put them back on and broke the silence.

"Is there anypony here who wishes to have the floor before we go to a scheduled recess?"

At first, it looked like nopony had anything to add, until Gong found his voice once more and raised his hoof. The Mayor pointed to him, allowing him the right to speak.

Gong inhaled deeply through his nostrils, then exhaled, then spoke, "I would like to call for a vote…on Miss Twilight Sparkle's proposal."

* * *

"Charge!"

The line of troll soldiers, wrapped up in their jackets and ushankas, charged at the order of their Centurion, sticking their bayonets out in front, ramming them into the life-size, pony-shaped sacks of wool. They pulled them out after twisting them in the wool clockwise and counter clockwise. The thick ring of soldiers encircling the combat training area waved their fists in the air and cheered.

General Hakhavar and the two Brigadiers of the army watched the scene from a frosty mount a few metres outside the ring, dressed in their much thicker and warmer clothing. Hakhavar was smoking a thick cigar, one of his ten a day.

"As you can see, General, our soldiers have been finely trained in the art of close combat," The first, stout Brigadier told his leader with a superior smirk and grasped his jacket lapels. "Even if our soldiers' bullets miss them, up close they will stand no chance."

The other taller, slimmer Brigadier steepled his fingers and quipped, "Providing, of course, they decide to fight…which I find highly unlikely. Hehehehehe!"

General Hakhavar ignored them and pulled out what seemed to be a megaphone boomed over at the trolls in practice and the Centurion overseeing them, _"THE NECKS, YOU IDIOTS! AIM PRIMARILY FOR THEIR NECKS OR THEIR HEADS!"_ He dropped it onto to ground, muttering, "Idiots…" He grunted to his Brigadiers, facing them, "Whether they now how to properly use a bayonet or not, they're still rookies. I wonder how many of them have held even a _spear_ before." The disgruntled General went back to glowering down at the horde of practicing soldiers again. "Not only that, but a lot of them are scrawny. I don't think they've eaten a lot."

The taller Brigadier clapped his hands together and explained uneasily, "Well, your Excellency, we must keep in mind that the harvests this year have not been as…prosperous as they were the last few years."

"But we can assure you, our physicians have found all our soldiers fit for service," chimed the stout Brigadier, ringing his wrists.

"Doctors. Feh! They're not warriors like us, what do they really know?" Hakhavar jabbed his thumb at the soldiers below and ordered his two top trolls, "I want these guys fed more, you two got it? They're no use to me starving to death on the field."

"Well, I suppose we could put to death a few more boars. They should provide enough nourishment and protein for the soldiers."

"Fine. The more meat they got in them, the better."

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard a series of angry shouts and chanting below. A second circle was forming, this time within the thick ring of soldiers surrounding the training area. It took Hakhavar two seconds to categorize it. A fight had broken out between couple of the soldiers, over something petty, no doubt.

The slim Brigadier peered forward, examining the situation also. "Best it be left to their commanding officers, sir," he recommended, though he already knew his General's answer.

"I AM their commanding officer."

Hakhavar took the cigar out from his mouth and carelessly flicked it away somewhere on the ground. He rolled up his already pretty short sleeves, growled irritably and marched down off the mount and towards the ring of soldiers, namely where the scrap was taking place. No way was he letting this go down on his watch!

When he approached the scene, every troll who saw him instantly fell silent, backed a few feet away, stood up straight and saluted respectfully, though partially in fear. The only ones who did not do this were the ones currently fighting each other in the frost and dirt.

One of the soldiers managed to get on top of the other and pulled his fist back to pound his enemy's face into powder. Just as he was about to punch, General Hakhavar grabbed his wrist and before he could turn his head, punched him square in the face, sending him backward.

"AND WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE, YOU MISERABLE PILES OF PUKE?"

"General Hakhavar, sir!" Both trolls got up, though in far from perfect unison and saluted their General, despite being bruised, bloodied and disoriented.

The aged but still strong Mountain Troll glared fierily at the troll he just punched. He knew this particular troll well and even before he went up to the scene, he had a sick feeling that the little snot was involved.

"It's always you, Greezilnak!" Hakhavar barked furiously, grabbing the soldier by the collar and shaking him a bit before shoving him back. The soldier toppled over and fell on his back. "We can't even go through one training session without you causing a fight! Explain yourself, soldier!"

The soldier, who according to Hakhavar went by the name Greezilnak got back up on his feet and stood upright. "Sir, forgive me, sir! Me and him were-"

""Me and him?" Where the hell did you learn your grammar, you scum bag? It's "him and I!" Gods help you, son, say it right!"

"…_him and I..._were having a passionate disagreement, sir."

"Oh! A "passionate disagreement"! You heard that, trolls?" His head scanned over the circle of soldiers he, Greezilnak and the third were standing within. "These two fine gentletrolls were merely having a passionate disagreement! Nothing to worry about," he laughed a bit, shaking his head before he switched back to furious mode and swung his fist into Greezilnak's jaw, sending him flying off his feet again. "Who do you think you are, Greezilnak, you snot-faced little punk? Let me make this clear for you, and this time, try to follow me! You-are-nothing! If you were in my toilet, I wouldn't even bother flushing you! My good Gods, boy, you would need three promotions to get to be a scumbag, you are _that_ worthless! Need I go on?"

"Sir…" Greezilnak grunted, holding his bleeding mouth and still flat on his back. "No, sir."

"You know, I actually thought you might've been of some worth when you were spotting those ponies near the camp, but like always, you somehow manage to live up to my expectations!" He reached down and pulled the soldier up to his eyelevel by his long black hair. "So tell ya what…I think I may have a little job for you."

"Sir?"

Hakhavar promptly slammed the troll's face back against the ground and pulled it up again. "As a punishment, you dolt!" He then leaned in and whispered into Greezilnak's ear for about twenty seconds and pulled back. "Do you understand that, scumbag-in-training?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Just being clear," Hakhavar turned back to the rest of his troops and snapped, "And what the Hell are you all looking at? Get back to your training, you pathetic piles bile!" The trolls immediately went back to observing the armed soldiers in the training area, whom picked up their bayonets again and went back to work on the sacks of wool.

The General marched out of the ring, business now dealt with and back up to the mount where he started, where the Brigadiers were waiting nervously.

"Um, your Excellence, what exactly did you tell him?" The stout Brigadier inquired.

"You'll find out, soon enough," the infamous General replied, pass through in-between them. He called back to them one last time, "Get my cigar!"

"But you threw it on the ground."

"What's your point?" A pause followed. "…I thought so. Now go get it!"

* * *

Twilight Sparkle's proposal was indeed put to a vote. It passed with the required two-thirds majority, effectively recognising the Grey Troll army's presence and declared intention of occupation as an act of war against the land of Equestria and granting the town the right to arm and defend itself. However, if they were to fight, they would need to appoint a leader of their front, and since there were few ponies in the town with enough military experience, a pony with great organisational skill was needed. They knew just the pony for the job…

Yet whilst all this political nonsense was going on, Twilight Sparkle and her group of friends, collectively known as the Mane Six, were coping with the situation in their own way. Since at the time there was nothing they could do but wait for the Elder Assembly's decision, what else could they do other than…go down to the café?

"So, I hear they spotted the Batcolt in Manehattan the other week."

"Really? Last time I heard, he was in Trottingham,"

"You know, for one pony, he sure gets around a lot."

"That's the point. Ah don't think it is one pony. The way ah figure it, Celestia's got a bunch of them stashed someplace like some sort of SWAT team."

"Could you spare us the conspiracy theories, darling, just this once?"

"Well, you know what I think?"

"Pinkie Pie, if you say it's that billionaire playboy one more time, I swear to Celestia, I'll-"

"Your tea, madams?"

All six looked up at the waiter, who had crossed through the dark, stuffy cramped room of tightly packed tables and chairs to theirs in the furthest corner, holding a large platter of white cups and a pot of tea. It had come faster than expected.

"Yes, thank you," Twilight smiled and the waiter set the platter down on the table, before walking off silently. Each pony, save for Applejack, took a cup and with a glow emitting from Rarity's want, the pot levitated and poured piping hot tea into each cup.

Applejack looked left and right, making sure nopony outside their table was watching before lifting her hat slightly to take something out. It was a small bottle filled with a sparkling amber content. She pulled out the cork with her teeth and slowly sipped the drink.

Rarity was the only one paying attention to this. "Eh-hem! What do you think you're doing, Applejack?"

"Pardon?"

"That drink you are indulging yourself in is improper, unhealthy, and most of all, _illegal_, young Applejack!"

Rather than just tell Rarity she did not give a damn, Applejack stared her right in the air and drank from the bottle some more, much to Rarity's chagrin.

Putting her cup down, Rainbow Dash told the two seriously, "Hey, you girls have a lot more to worry about around here than getting spotted by cops."

"What do you mean?"

She leaned in and lifted a hoof to cover a side of her mouth and four of the five other ponies began to lean in with anticipation. She whispered lowly, "Well, you didn't hear it from me, but what I've figured is-"

However, Twilight cut her off in midsentence, speaking louder than she intended, "Oh no! No, no, no! We are not talking about _this_ again!"

But this only made Pinkie Pie more eager. "Ooooh, what is it?""

Twilight let out a long, frustrated moan and explained dryly, "Rainbow Dash thinks Ponyville has been infiltrated by spies working for the trolls."

Fluttershy immediately flew under the table, the top of her head only visible. Her barely audible voice squeaked, "Th-there's s-spies in Ponyville?"

"No, Fluttershy, the whole point is that there isn't-"

Now it was Rainbow Dash's turn to cut Twilight off. "That's right, spies! I reckon they got 'em everywhere; in the civil service, in the factories, and probably in the cafés." This made Fluttershy whimper even more, to the point where it looked like she was going to turn into a mouse and run off.

The lavender unicorn just dropped her head against the table, mumbling something about being surrounded by idiots.

"Now hold, Twi, ah think Rainbow may be onta somethin'," Applejack reasoned, her now slightly suspicious eyes darting around the sea of silhouetted huddled groups of ponies in the café. A dark cloud had come over the Earth pony's head, and not the literal kind Rainbow Dash was prone to creating as a prank. Something about her attitude towards the ponies, save for her five friends, sitting around her had changed, as if they were not the same ponies she saw and said "hello" to everyday. "I mean, this is a time of war. And sides are often prone to usin' espionage."

Truth be told, it was not just Applejack who the situation had got to. The air in the whole turn had changed dramatically within the course of a few hours upon hearing the news of the impeding attack. The air had become full of suspicion. Sure, everypony tried their best to resume their everyday lives, but they were now being forced to ask themselves who exactly they could trust. It was like Applejack said, in times of war, espionage was commonplace. If one pony lets slip vital information to another pony who happens to be a spy, then the consequences could be dire. Just one simple yet serious lapse of judgement could be all it takes to bring down a nation. Who in the world could bear that kind of guilt?

Naturally, Twilight was about to reassure her friend that such suspicions were unfounded and that they could trust their neighbours, but when she opened her mouth, she then felt somepony tap her on the shoulder to her left, outside the table. She looked left and saw another pony standing there.

He was a tall, chiselled, greenish-blue coated pony, dressed in a long black coat, hat and shades, disguising his face and most of his body. He was holding something in his hoof – a letter.

"Uhhh, can I help you?"

He said not a word, but just stretched his hoof holding the letter to her. Uneasily, peering left and right, Twilight slowly raised her hoof and took it herself. The mysterious pony then disappeared into the background, as if he were never there to begin with.

"Well, that was…strange," Rarity commented, her and the rest of the Mane Six staring off wide-eyed at the space where the pony used to be.

Examining the letter in her hooves, Twilight took notice of the ornate red seal on the flap. It was from the Mayor's office. Presuming something bad had happened or was about to happen, she tore the seal off and pulled out the letter from the envelope and began reading it at an abnormally fast pace, her large purple pupils darting over the small, rushed handwritten ink text. When she finished, a serious look overcame her. She downed a lot of her tea at once, scorching her throat, but she shrugged this off and got up from the table.

"Twilight, what's wrong?" Pinkie Pie asked, concerned.

"On me, girls," was all she muttered, taking out a twenty Bit bill and placing it on the platter on the table. She turned around to leave the café.

"It's bad, isn't it?" Fluttershy guessed aloud, raising her voice enough to be heard in the busy café.

She did not answer her; she just trotted out of the building. Upon making it outside, she pressed her forehead against the white stone wall, chewing at her lip and squeezing her eyelids shut. Waiting a moment, pulled her forehead back, took a deep breath and trotted off, heading to town hall.

* * *

"Look…I know this is all a bit…_sudden,_ but _you_ are the only pony in this town with the school to pull something like this off."

That was what the Mayor said to Twilight Sparkle, once she had finished basically restated everything the letter said. The two ponies were sat down at a wooden table in a private white room. A glass jug of ice cold water and a pair of glass cups were set on the side for them.

"I mean, let's not forget, it was _your _idea. Who else would be more suited to carry out such a plan?"

"Uh-huh."

The Mayor crossed her forelegs and lowered her head, fixating her eyes on the irregular patterns on the wooden table instead of the unicorn sitting in front of her. She felt absolutely ravaged right now. She had not been prepared for a situation like this during the entirety of her extensively long career. For decades now she had governed this town and the worst she had to deal with was managing Winter Wrap Up, never something of this severity.

"Certainly not me, I can tell you right now. I mean, me, I'm…I'm just a politician. I take care of all the administration. I'm not a hero…not like you," The Mayor reached over and picked something up from next to the jug of water. It was a blue peaked cap with a golden broach clipped to the front. She held it in her hooves for a moment or two and slowly pushed it across the table to Twilight. "These ponies need their true leader. What do you say?"

Twilight Sparkle stared at the cap on the table before her in a sort of meditative state. She saw her reflection in the golden broach staring back at her. It was impossible. How could she lead them? Yes, she was a darn good organiser, as was demonstrated in the Winter Wrap Up, but this? This was way out of her league.

But in the midst of all that self-doubt, something out of the blue struck Twilight and struck her hard. It was a replay of what Spike said when he defended her back at the assembly of the Elders. Everything he said was true. She was the pony who faced off against Nightmare Moon alongside her best friends and it was they again who thwarted the plans of an evil god of chaos. If they could do all that and make it out okay, then who were these thugs trolls in comparison?

At last, she took the cap and placed it neatly on top of her head. Twilight Sparkle then told the Mayor simply, "I'm going to need an office…and a staff to go along with it."

"Sure. Anything else?"

"Yes. I'll need a war cabinet."

Twilight did not defeat Nightmare Moon or Discord, lest we forget. If this third great threat was to be defeated, the fight back needed not just one pony to lead it, but six.

* * *

**(a/n) Okay, so that's chapter three. Again, it did not go as far as I would have liked, but I do feel it fits better to end it off here. I don't know why, but it just does. Anywho, please do make sure to leave a review, and I'll make sure to update much sooner. Until then.**


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